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In the West German state of Lower Saxony, so many people still believe in witches that for the last year the regional health department has been conducting an official anti-witchcraft campaign. A doctor in charge of this drive - which has already bagged a woman peddling a panacea compounded largely of starved caterpillars - said that it was amazing that witchcraft could remain a troubling issue in the atomic age. The first nuclear explosion at Alamogordo has probably spurred the world's witch doctors to attain new heights of competitive achievement. The amazing thing in Lower Saxony is the evident presence of starved caterpillars. The writer does not believe that physicists could tell a full caterpillar from a famished one.

Growing up in an apocalyptic cult wasn’t nearly as hard as leaving it.

As the years passed, Tom grew more entrenched in his homelessness. He was absorbed in lofty fantasies and private missions, aware of the basest necessities and the most transcendent abstractions, and almost nothing in between.